Mesa Verde protects home course

COSTA MESA — When Mesa Verde Country Club’s Steve Rhorer did a rather unimaginative fist pump after nailing a 12-foot birdie putt on the 11th hole of the seventh Jones Cup, Tom Sargent was not impressed.

It marked the team’s first birdie since the third hole, so Sargent was expecting a little more than the short fist pump toward the ground that Rhorer offered.

So when Sargent made a seven-foot birdie putt on the 14th hole, he showed Rhorer the fine art of the fist pump, done horizontally and fully equipped with a foot-slide.

Rhorer and Sargent combined for seven birdies, and a total of three fist pumps, as Mesa Verde captured the Jones Cup title by shooting an eight-under-par 134 in the five-person, two-best-ball format.

It marked the first time since the inaugural Jones Cup in 2000 that Mesa Verde has been victorious. The host team edged Santa Ana Country Club by one stroke.

Sargent, Mesa Verde’s head professional, and Rhorer, the club men’s champion, accounted for 70% of Mesa Verde’s birdies.

Mesa Verde, the second team to tee off, was six-under par after 13 holes when Santa Ana, the last of four teams to tee off, sat at six-under after 11 holes.

Then Sargent had birdies on two consecutive holes. On the 419-yard 14th hole, he drove the ball into the rough just off the fairway, but reached the green out of the rough. Representing Mesa Verde’s last chance for a birdie on the hole, Sargent sank a seven-footer.

When he followed that up with a 12-foot birdie putt on the 15th to put Mesa Verde at eight-under, he unleashed a fist pump that served as a lesson to Rhorer on how to execute the move with panache.

“I was trying to show Steve the proper way to do a fist pump,” Sargent said. “When he did a fist pump on 11, it was pretty wimpy.”

Rhorer admits it wasn’t his best effort.

“I usually do my fist pumps into the air,” Rhorer said. “For some reason, this time I did it down low into the ground.”

After shooting par on the first hole, Mesa Verde went on a hot spurt. Women’s representative Madeline Campbell, playing in her first Jones Cup, was one of four Mesa Verde golfers with a chance to putt for birdie on the par-four second hole, but the only one to capitalize on the opportunity.

Campbell negotiated a small hump and sank a 10-foot putt. It was one of two birdies on the day for Campbell, who was the women’s runner-up at Mesa Verde. Campbell took the place of women’s club champion Akemi Khaiat, who is no longer a member.

“I was nervous, but it was a lot of fun,” Campbell said. “You just want to do well and contribute because all the club members are watching.”

It was Sargent’s turn for a birdie on the par-three third hole, where he drove onto the green then made a nine-foot putt.

But what put Mesa Verde over the top was having two golfers birdie the fourth and 12th holes.

On the 574-yard, par-five fourth hole, Rhorer and club pro Brett Brummett did the honors.

Brummett was within 20 feet of the green after two shots. Then he chipped to within six feet of the hole before sinking his birdie putt.

Rhorer also was on the green in three shots before making his first putt. The pair of birdies put Mesa Verde at four-under.

It was Brummett’s only birdie of the day.

“I made lots of runs at birdies, but for some reason my putts weren’t going in,” Brummett said.

On the 134-yard 12th, each Mesa Verde golfer had a birdie-putt opportunity, but only Rhorer converted, sinking a 12-footer.

“We left a lot of putts out there,” Sargent said. “But we had a lot of great putts that didn’t go in.”

Mesa Verde team members noticed the greens on their own course were playing differently.

“The course kind of suffered a little because of the heat,” said Campbell, who plays at Mesa Verde two to three times a week. “It was a little slower than normal.”

“The greens were a little thicker than usual,” Brummett said. “You had to putt the ball a little harder.”

Being the host was both a positive and a negative for the Mesa Verde team, which also included senior club champion Tom McGreevy, who helped his team’s cause with several pars.

“There was more pressure because some of our members are out here,” Brummett said. “Then there’s less pressure because we’re so familiar with the course and you can just turn and burn.”

Rhorer also earned a berth in the qualifying tournament for the Mercedes-Benz Championship Jan. 1-7 at Kapalua, Hawaii. By being the amateur with the lowest score of the day at two-over-par 73, Rhorer advances to the qualifying tournament Nov. 2-5 at Barton Creek in Austin, Texas.

“To have the low score is a nice feeling,” Rhorer said. “I don’t go out there to get the lowest score. I just do the best I can.”